Lots of Logs

I’ve noticed that many gardeners are afraid of dead wood—not the dead wood on live shrubs and trees, which can be a sign of disease, but dead wood like old logs etc. used ornamentally, strewn on the ground.

My backyard garden is full of old logs and dead wood used decoratively.

Well, I’d like to advocate for the practice of including logs and other old wood in the garden! Our backyard woodland garden is full of decorative old wood that serves a crucial function as habitat. (Some of the old wood has sentimental value, too, but that’s a story for another time…okay, I can i.d. most of our old Christmas tree trunks in the yard, and I love having them there!)

It’s amazing to see all the LIFE this dead wood supports! Beetles, bees, ants, hover flies, digger wasps, decomposer organisms, birds galore! Fungi in every shape, size and colour erupt after every rainfall.

All this life is not something to be afraid of. It’s a sign that the garden is working!

I collect dead wood everywhere. Branches that come down in parks. Pruning from healthy trees in the yard. Branches that break off in windstorms. Healthy neighbourhood trees that have been cut down for one reason or another (usually a tragedy, as far as I’m concerned).

Yes, it’s important to avoid wood from diseased trees, or wood infested with termites, but there is a lot of healthy wood around for the taking. Arborists are another good source.

I use wood to line paths, to create focal points, to support floppy plants and a cup of coffee—there’s no end to the potential uses.

And every once in a while there are surprises. We have a salvaged log that’s been dead for three years, and every year it sprouts leaves (seeds land in its crevasses). Talk about the life force in action.

I’m not sure it’s even accurate to refer to “dead” wood. It’s slowly decomposing, supporting all kinds of organisms, slowly returning its life to the soil.

I love the way that death brings life to the garden.

Wood Chips: Never Too Many

Yes, I am that person who, when she hears tree work being done in the neighbourhood, runs outside (sometimes in my pj’s) to find out what and why they’re cutting. More than once, my questions have led to better pruning by the Hydro crew. (Stop hacking the main trunk, people!) I consider it a public service in defense of the urban forest.

I also consider it a public service that many arborist companies will give people free wood chips when you ask. Oh, and I ask! Most years, we get one big load dumped in the driveway.

And then I spend the next few days wondering, what have I done?!

And yet, miraculously, the pile gets absorbed into the garden without fail.

Sometimes, the wood chip disribution turns into a community event, and the neighbours bring their shovels.

Every year, after many hours of hard labour lugging the load to the backyard, I delight in the look and foot-feel of the newly replenished wood chip path.

Gaying Up the Garden for Pride

Haapy Pride everyone!

And just for fun, a Pride flag of native plants that are larval hosts for swallowtail butterflies!

 From left to right:

Paw paw (Asimina triloba), host for zebra swallowtail
Tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), host for eastern tiger swallowtail
Spicebush (Lindera benzoin), host for spicebush swallowtail
Hop tree (Ptelea trifoliata), host for giant swallowtail
Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana), host plant for eastern tiger swallowtail
Dutchman’s pipe (Aristolochia macrophylla), host plant for pipevine swallowtail

Sedges Instead

I’ve long wanted to do a demonstration planting of native sedges—gorgeous, totally undervalued plants—as a low-maintenance alternative to lawns. So when an opportunity for a public space arose, I jumped at the chance.

Say hello to a boulevard in the west end of Toronto that is now home to the project Sedges Instead!

I solarized this bed for about a month and a half to suppress the abundant weed crop prior to planting.

The first small bed has now been planted with awl-fruited sedges (Carex stipata). Thank you to Lara Mrosovsky (of Miinikaan Innovation & Design) and Ryan Godfrey (of World Wildlife Fund—Canada) for rescuing these plants and passing them along.

Seeing the awl-fruited sedges sway in the wind, with their graceful blades, is a delight.

Awl-fruited sedge in the small, unsolarized bed to which I added new soil.

A bigger bed is being solarized in preparation for a mid-summer planting of many more great sedges and native pollinator plants!

The beds will be a “seed orchard” and the seeds will be collected for distribution to community projects and growers in order to propagate more sedges and make them available for plantings. Not only are sedges rare in gardens, but they’re also rare in the nursery trade. This project is a small part of trying to encourage the growing of sedges! Especially if you’re looking for an incredibly low-maintenance and ecologically valuable alternative to lawns.

(Many thanks to WWF-Canada and the Pollinator Partnership for supporting this volunteer project.)